WELCOME TO THE CFZ BLOG NETWORK: COME AND JOIN THE FUN

Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting, usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.

42 sheep were found dead from apparent animal bites on a farm in Honduras that was guarded by dogs and a few humans, too. What could be responsible for such weird carnage? Could it be . . . chupacabras?

According to Inexplicata:

Rumors about the Chupacabras have gained strength as a result of the death of a large number of sheep on a property belonging to a political representative of that province. Yesterday, at 5:00 a.m., when workers arrived at the property, they found dozens of dead sheep with injuries to their necks. Others had bled to death. Nearly 42 animals were lifeless and another 10 injured. The possibility that the death toll would increase over time was not dismissed.

A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting, usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.

He moves like a human. It’s just a man in a costume hidden by the grain of aged celluloid. There is no way that this hoax proves the existence of Bigfoot.

Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin’s 1967 footage, shot in Northern California, is not only easily the most reproduced footage of Bigfoot — it’s also the most attacked. Scientist after scientist has slowed down the motion and peeled back the layers to say that the creature on the tape provides no evidence for Bigfoot, Sasquatch, or any other variation of the hairy giant that has captured public imagination for centuries and, if ancient records are to be believed, terrorized them for millenia.

A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting, usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.

TASMANIAN tigers are a step closer to returning from extinction thanks to an extinct frog that gave birth through its mouth, says a leading researcher.

Professor Mike Archer, a professor of palaeobiology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said yesterday he expected to see tigers roaming Tasmanian bush within his lifetime, after being brought back to life using gene technology.

He said an important step was taken in the past few weeks when a research team he was working with managed to create embryos of an unusual frog known as the gastric brooding frog, which became extinct in Australia during the 1980s. The frog incubated its young in its stomach and gave birth through its mouth.

He said the embryos containing the DNA of the extinct frog were created by using tissue from a frog that had been frozen before the species became extinct.

Researchers injected DNA from the frozen frog into eggs from living frogs of a similar species and produced cloned embryos that lasted for a few days.

Professor Archer began a project in 2000, which was shelved in 2003, to bring the Tasmanian tiger back to life and said the brooding frog success showed extinct animals could be brought back to life.

In an article for the first edition of Cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that cryptozoology is the study of 'unexpected animals' and following on from that perfectly reasonable assertion, it seems to us that whereas the study of out of place birds may not have the glamour of the hunt for bigfoot or lake monsters, it is still a perfectly valid area for the Fortean zoologist to be interested in. So after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo Corinna has taken the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.FDA delays approval of GSK bird flu vaccine

I also have two longer and
more complicated articles on Bigfoot I was still working on BUT I have a talk
show interview tonight. If I get one of them done tomorrow I shall post the link
later, but otherwise they are most likely coming out Monday morning.

Today we are up bright and early for a trip
to Dartmoor, via a James Bond-style assignation with the Danish sub-consul in a
car park in Ivybridge. My life gets stranger. There are 20 spoonbills which
overwinter in the UK and yesterday we saw one of them. That truly is a humbling
experience.

* The Gonzo Daily is a two-way process. If
you have any news or want to write for us, please contact me at jon@eclipse.co.uk.
If you are an artist and want to showcase your work or even just say hello, please write to me at gonzo@cfz.org.uk.
Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as widely as
possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as it is
viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the fun,
spread the word and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it raining.
See you tomorrow....

* The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a
daily online magazine (mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia
group of companies. But it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels
like it. The same team also do a weekly newsletter called - imaginatively - The
Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link: http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html

* We should probably mention here that
some of our posts are links to things we have found on the internet that we
think are of interest. We are not responsible for spelling or factual errors in
other people's websites. Honest guv!

* Jon Downes, the editor of all
these ventures (and several others) is an old hippy of 53 who, together with
his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and a not very
small orange kitten (who isn't), puts it all together from a converted potato
shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon, which he shares with various
fish and sometimes a small Indian frog. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife
Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law and a motley
collection of social malcontents. Plus... did we mention the orange
cats?